On-deck circle of life finds Biggio’s son a budding pro
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Cavan Biggio thinks his dad holds it together. He remembers him as his silent fan in the stands or staid coach in the dugout.
“He treats every game I’ve ever been in the same,” said Cavan, whom the Toronto Blue Jays invited to spring training this year, eight months after drafting him in the fifth round.
He does not know how precious or effusive his dad can get.
Cavan had no idea that his dad, Craig Biggio, the 20-year As- tros iron man and Hall of Famer, could not contain himself when he turned on a broadcast to hear his son’s first spring training at-bat.
It can be unpredictable when a first-year minor league player will appear in a Grapefruit or Cactus League game, if at all. Cavan, who turns 22 in April, sent word he would travel on March 10 with the Blue Jays to play a road game against the Detroit Tigers.
Around the same time as the game’s first pitch, Biggio and his wife, Patty, began driving from San Marcus to HousWEST
ton, a nearly three-hour trip — just long enough to listen to a ballgame.
Biggio used a mobile phone app to broadcast the game in the car. He panicked when the signal strength waned.
“It was cutting in and out because we’re in friggin’ San Marcos,” Biggio said. “Come on, man. It keeps rebuffering on the thing.”
The announcers came in crisply once Biggio reached Bastrop.
The Biggios, separated by 1,100 miles, waited anxiously together.
In the top of the sixth inning, Cavan was brought in to pinch-hit.
“It’s a big deal,” Biggio said two days later during a visit to the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, where he will come back as an Astros special instructor on Friday.
Proud papa
He had not come down from the elation yet. He bounced up and down, giddy, speaking faster in a higher octave and boasting a smile so wide that he made a deep crease around his mouth in retelling the story.
“I’m pretty fired up,” he said.
In imitating the radio call, Biggio made the at-bat sound like the biggest moment of the game: “There’s a line drive down the right field line! He catches it!” Then Biggio groaned. Cavan took the field at second base, the primary position his dad played.
“He turned a double play,” Biggio said, beaming. “It was nice.”
The Biggio family — which also includes oldest brother Connor and only daughter Quinn — does not have a year in its history without organized baseball. The kids shagged flies in the outfield at spring training. Biggio still worked with the Astros in retirement. Later, he coached his teenage sons at St. Thomas High School, winning two state championships and twice finishing as runners-up. Cavan received frequent visits from his parents at his college games for Notre Dame.
Cavan’s spring training is the latest chapter.
“It’s kind of weird saying this is my first spring training because I’ve been to about 15 of them when I was growing up,” he said.
It was “the greatest part” of his life.
“I was the biggest Astros fan ever growing up,” Cavan said, “and even though my dad was who he was, I was still in awe when I would walk into the clubhouse every day and see the team that I idolized.”
The other spring break tradition was visiting Disney World. Cavan was afraid of heights as a kid, but he and his brother progressed from Magic Kingdom to Space Mountain, seeking bigger thrills.
“I was lugging all the stuff around with my wife,” Biggio said, bemoaning the strollers, snacks and souvenirs.
Early indoctrination
By 10, Cavan was old enough to safely shag fly balls during batting practice at the Astros’ former spring training facility in Kissimmee.
“You’re hoping that you play the game long enough that your kids can see what you do for a living, because a lot of times you don’t get to play for a long, long time, like I was able to,” Biggio said.
He said the players loved when Biggio’s kids voraciously chased down balls “because the kids would run it down and throw them in so they wouldn’t have to work so hard.”
In camp, Biggio’s lot horsed around with the kids of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and José Vizcaíno. Cavan remembers Clemens pitching the boys Wiffle balls on the grass.
“A pretty good family experience at the end of the day,” Cavan said. “Life was easy.”
Given the chance to offer up his favorite family memories, Craig reverts to his normal, more reserved self. Cavan enjoyed the Disney rides. Craig stressed the pro baseball grind.
Spring training was exactly that: rising at 7:15 a.m., finishing up at 4:30 p.m., settling on the convenience of healthful home cooking instead of eating out after an exhausting day, and getting into bed by 8:30 p.m.
“And you do it every day,” Biggio emphasized.
Biggio felt that toll after two decades. He had taken a one-year, $5.15 million contract in a final push to reach 3,000 hits. That final spring training was the toughest.
Cavan was older by then. He remembers glimpsing at the bruises accumulating on his dad’s body.
“Toward the end, he was driving in a car privately, and I kind of knew that he was getting old,” Cavan said. “His shoulder was really bothering him. He was having a tough time playing the field.”
Biggio made it to 3,060 hits and retired after the 2007 season. The family still went to spring training, and the Biggio boys still shagged flies.
“It’s just that (my dad) wasn’t hitting BP this time,” Cavan said.
A dream takes hold
Spring training, once an escape, started to look like a dream workplace to Cavan.
“When the last spring training happened, I was ready,” he said. “It was time for me to stop running around this field, having a good time, being a goofball kid. It was time for me to focus on my own career and try to get there on that field as a player versus as someone’s kid.”
Those are not mutually exclusive, however, for the son of a baseball icon.
“When your dad has a big name, you’re always going to have that following around,” Biggio said with displeasure. “That’s really unfair to do to them. I just want them to go out and be their own player.” Cavan does not fight that. “I’m still trying to figure out my identity and what kind of player I’m going to be,” he said.
Cavan did not see his dad’s shadow in the batter’s box when he lined out or at second base while he was turning two. The Blue Jays game was only an exhibition, but the boy who’d been awed by his dad’s legend stepped on to the field as a player of equal status. He stretched, competed and bumped fists with the major leaguers he venerated.
He looked around the dugout and took it all in.
“It honestly felt a little like I was the kid in that Astros uniform, except I was actually teammates with them,” he said.
Biggio, unsurprisingly, declined to answer whether Cavan will make the big leagues.
“If we ever get to that day, ask me that question again,” Biggio said. “I hope so. We all do. I know how hard the game is.”
“I think I will,” Cavan said.
Biggio embraces the minor steps. Cavan contemplates the major leap.
“I don’t think we’re going to get that special moment until I actually earn the callup with the big league team and finally share that moment with him,” he said.
The dad who boiled over with excitement upon hearing his son take a swing at pro ball will have a tough time keeping his cool if he ever sees Cavan stick there.